Livelihood skilling of refugees
KTM introduced an initiative in which refugees were trained in various hands-on skills with the objective of improving their economic status.
The refugees were trained according to their peace clubs. Each club had an opportunity to select at least two economic activities that they wanted to train in.
The selected trades included: soap making, candle making, basket weaving, basic bakery, beadmaking, bag making.
Each settlement was encouraged to form at least 10 peace groups with 30 group members each.
The peace groups would also act as a support group through which members can support one another. The groups were tasked to come up with economic activities they would like to engage in as a way of boosting their livelihoods and reducing redundancy, idleness and dependency which perpetuates vicious behaviour leading to conflicts and disputes in the local community.
The beneficiaries selected short easy to train trades with good and quick returns.
Selected trades included: soap making, basket weaving, bead making, shoe making and repair, goat raring, poultry, bag making. Bakery, candle making, and jelly making.
A total of 737 refugees were trained in skills with 180 people coming from 6 zones in Arua, 331 people trained in Palabek from 11 zones and 226 people in Kiryandongo from 8 zones. Every beneficiary had the opportunity to participate in at least one trade training. The training was done by local artisans who had knowledge of the language used within the local communities using locally available materials for the purpose of sustainability.
Delivering Solutions For
People in Need
Sponsorship Programs
KICA ministries has enrolled 89 children; out of the 89, andof them 57 received sponsorship. The 57 sponsored children in Kitgum and Padre received basic care and physical support that includes food, soap, and sanitary towels for the girls, mattresses, Vaseline, bedsheets, blankets and a set of new clothes for Christmas. We were also able to construct a house for one of the child headed family, whose old hut had fallen down.
Shelter
A child headed household; Kenneth has five siblings. Altogether there four girls and two boys. They lost both parents and had been left in a very poor leaking shelter. During the rainy season, the shelter collapsed and the children were left homeless. With support from ministry partners, KICA was able to put a new descent shelter for them. The community, the district officials were present at the house hand over, they appreciated the support rendered unto the children.
Medical Care
Each KTM ministry center has a health facility with a proper medical staff. The children with illnesses get to receive medical attention as and when they require it. The common illnesses have always been malaria, typhoid, cough and flue. There is a case of sickle cells in Kitgum, which has been routinely managed. The children’s health especially toward the last quarter of this year has been fair with few cases of sickness reported; few children were admitted in the hospital. That is a success that KTM appreciates.
Support to the Local Government
KTM supports other community structures and entities. KTM supported the Pajule Town council to orient the are land committee and ensure they get into office as a way of ensuring the land acquired by KTM was documented. The land committee had not been oriented for the past 2years and could thus not ably do their work. This was affecting progress of work at KTM.
Building Projects
Building works at the Counselling centre have been completed. The counselling centre is comprised of a big hall of 8x 8 , a counselling room of 4 x 8 , an office room plus store of 6x 4. A latrine (local toilet facility) and a ground keeper house/ kitchen. This will be used by the local community as a community centre for various communal activities such as trainings, and most importantly members can access counselling services at this place. A counsellor will be permanently placed at this centre to provide counselling services. Currently the local community gathers at the centre every Sunday and uses the hall for Sunday worship. The children in KTM program also use it as a meeting point on centre days.
Visits and Followup
In May, KTM staff from Kampala travelled upcountry to visit and support the KTM field teams in record keeping, accounting and finance and took children’s pictures. The visit enabled the teams on ground to know areas of improvement. It was great to see the children and mentors interact so well with the team from the head office, Kampala. The children look forward to more of such visits at their centers.